William Ireland is a loser. He’s such a bad poet that publishers reject his work sight unseen, as if the mere possibility of reading it might cause permanent damage. Women turn away from him as he approaches (and not subtly, either), and his father hates him so much that he calls him Samuel – after William’s dead brother—just to really drive home the point. He toils away in a boring job at the Inns of Court, where his main skill seems to be quietly rotting.
Naturally, William craves the respect of his overbearing father, a collector of Shakespearean memorabilia who loves the Bard obsessively. So when William (or is it Samuel?) finds some old manuscript paper in his office, he comes up with a scheme to finally win his father’s approval. He’ll forge some documents and sign them with Shakespeare’s name. A small, harmless fraud, you might think, but William, being William, gets totally carried away. He doesn’t just forge a letter or two. He starts cranking out “discoveries” like he’s running a Shakespearean content farm and eventually even writes an entire “long lost” Shakespeare play, Vortigern and Rowena! Because if you’re going to lie, why not go really big and damn the consequences.
Set in 1794 (or thereabouts), The Legacy of William Ireland opens with Ireland bursting in, out of breath after running away from a fire at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane where they’ve put on Vortigen And Rowena which has caused a riot He then proceeds to tell us his sorry tale—and a very sorry tale it is too, because Ireland’s legacy turns out to be a miserable one. From failed forger to failed son to failed womaniser, he lays it all out, proving that yes, he really is a dud in everything he does; even his forgeries are second-rate.
The Legacy of William Ireland is a very funny play written by Tim Connery and performed with huge relish and energy by Will Croft. Although billed as a one-man show, it’s teeming with characters: Ireland’s father, the Prince of Wales, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, who puts on the play, Anne (his unrequited love), and more. Croft voices them all but also recruits what looks like the remnants of someone’s toy box to help. His father is represented by a small Henry VIII doll, Sheridan by a skull in a cloak, and the Prince of Wales by a tiny model dog. It’s gloriously absurd but completely in keeping with Connery’s mini-farce tone.
The set looks like someone has raided the local reclamation yard for anything vaguely Georgian: furniture, props, atmosphere. There’s even a fireplace with real smoke – well, almost. The dialogue is underpinned by excellent period music from Liam Connery, which at times gives the piece an almost cinematic feel. Luke Adamson’s sound and lighting design (also involving smoke effects) adds to the mood, and the costumes (uncredited) are spot-on, including Ireland’s terrible wig, which deserves its own round of applause for sheer tragic commitment.
As Ireland, Croft gives it absolutely everything, throwing himself – often literally – into the part. At just sixty minutes, it doesn’t outstay its welcome, the pace never flags, and the laughs keep coming; Ireland may have been a loser, but the play isn’t. The Legacy of William Ireland is theatre of the ridiculous but performed with great gusto and a knowing wink, and it’s well worth a trip down to the always welcoming The Bridge House Theatre in leafy Penge.
Review by Alan Fitter
William Ireland is an alarming mixture of astonishing self-belief and crushing self-doubt. He is a self-proclaimed poetic genius, and an idiot according to everyone else. His father thinks he’s an imbecile, and can never get his name right. Women ignore him. No publisher or patron will even read his poems. William is desperate to have his father acknowledge him, and to have his own voice heard. In fact, he is so desperate that he starts writing in someone else’s voice, that of William Shakespeare, proudly managing to not only “improve” on some of Shakespeare’s works by giving them a happy ending, but also dupe the world into thinking he had found a hitherto undiscovered Shakespeare play.
Will Croft – William Ireland
Written by Tim Connery
THE LEGACY OF WILLIAM IRELAND
Bridge House Theatre
10 to 21 February 2026
